Conventional structures of mounting of a roof molding for a vehicle are shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B.
As shown in FIG. 4A, a roof molding M is mounted in a mounting groove G defined in a joint area between a roof panel R and a side structure S. A roof panel body 10 of the roof panel R includes a first rising wall 11 extending downwards from a side edge of the roof panel body 10, and a bottom wall 12 extending horizontally from a lower end of the first rising wall 11. The side structure S includes a second rising wall 13 extending downwards from a side edge of the side structure S, and a bottom wall 14 extending horizontally from a lower end of the second rising wall 13. The bottom wall 12 of the roof panel R and the bottom wall 14 of the side structure S are superposed one on another and welded to each other by welding 15 to form a horizontal bottom wall 16 of the mounting groove G. The first rising wall 11 of the roof panel R is inclined at its lower end inwards of a vehicle body with respect to a vertical direction, and the second rising wall 13 of the side structure S is inclined at its lower end outwards of the vehicle body with respect to the vertical direction. Therefore, the width of the mounting groove G is increased from above to below.
The roof molding M made of a synthetic resin includes a lid 17, a base portion 18 and first and second lips 19 and 20. The lid 17 covers an opening in an upper portion of the mounting groove G, and the first and second lips 19 and 20 extending laterally from a lower end of the base portion 18 extending downwards from the lid 17 are resiliently deformed, so as to fold upwards, whereby they are brought into abutment against the first and second rising walls 11 and 13, respectively.
The conventional structure shown in FIG. 4B is different from the conventional structure shown in FIG. 4A in that a first rising wall 11 of a roof panel R extends vertically downwards, and the other construction is the same as the conventional structure shown in FIG. 4A.
The structures of mounting of the roof molding shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B are known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.11-291836, for example.
It should be noted here that in the conventional structure shown in FIG. 4A, when the pulling-up force in the direction of an arrow a is applied to one end of the lid 17 of the roof molding M, the other end of the lid 17 is slid in the direction of an arrow b and hence, the roof molding M is about to turn about a contact point c between the first lip portion 19 and the first rising wall 11. However, because the second rising wall 13 is inclined obliquely, the second lip portion 20 is hard to move upwards along the second rising wall 13, whereby the falling-off of the roof molding M from the mounting groove G is prevented. When the pulling-up force in the direction of an arrow d is applied to the other end of the lid 17 of the roof molding M, one end of the lid 17 is slid in the direction of an arrow e, and hence, the roof molding M is about to turn about a contact point f between the second lip portion 20 and the second rising wall 13. However, because the first rising wall 11 is inclined obliquely, the first lip portion 19 is hard to move upwards along the first rising wall 11, whereby the falling-off of the roof molding M from the mounting groove G is prevented.
In this way, in the conventional structure shown in FIG. 4A, it is possible to inhibit the upward movement of the left and right lip portions 19 and 20 to prevent the falling-off of the roof molding M due to the inclination of the first and second rising walls 11 and 12, but the conventional structure shown in FIG. 4A suffers from the following problem: When the roof panel R is formed by pressing, because the first rising wall 11 inclined with respect to the vertical direction has an undercut, the structure of a press die is complicated to cause an increase in cost.
In the conventional structure shown in FIG. 4B, the first rising wall 11 of the roof panel R extends vertically and has no undercut, the structure of a press die can be simplified to provide a reduction in cost. However, the conventional structure shown in FIG. 4B suffers from the following problem: When the other end of the lid 17 of the roof molding M is pulled up in the direction of the arrow d, and the roof molding M is about to turn about the contact point f, while the one end of the lid 17 is slid in the direction of the arrow e, the first lip portion 19 is slid in the direction of an arrow g on the first rising wall 11, because the first rising wall 11 is not inclined, whereby the roof molding M is liable to fall off.